In my jewellery I continuously reinvent nature by making imaginary wearable tree branches and plants. I dream of my jewellery being worn like a field flower picked up during a summer night walk. Nature is all about light, colour and rhythms in its organization and construction. I enjoy observing how different seasons and different weather conditions change the landscape. It is, as are the trees and plants, in a continuous changing mode. I state how the climbing plants cover and invade space or with which mathematical system a plant grows. I use these notes to work out this kind of simple themes. Then I translate my idea in different materials and compositions working with lines, volumes, movement, light and shadow. It’s all about connecting in-between the different elements, ‘painting’ as I like to think when working.
Terhi Tolvanen, 2023
“A river brings them all, and no one sees them”.
In this project, I made a series of rings with a stone called Kasauti. (A Hindi word for Touchstone, a black stone, used by Goldsmiths/Jewellers to test the purity of gold). Sculpting the rings by using a monolithic technique and drawing onto the rings with gold by rubbing and scratching. The act of rubbing & scratching requires a good amount of pressure, consistency, and control, and it is silent. I am very keen to explore, how and why to express the hidden storm behind the silence. As Mirza Ghalib also said in one of his poems:
be-ḳhudī be-sabab nahīñ ‘ġhālib’
kuchh to hai jis kī parda-dārī hai
-Mirza Ghalib
“Your stupor’s not of cause devoid
there’s something that want to hide”
When I was getting trained as a goldsmith, I have very clear memories of speaking out my philosophical/psychological/poetic aspect to this stone by rubbing gold rods. Though, to the co-workers it gave an impression of practicing/working.
The project looks to rework the same narrative by letting visitors engage in the same act.
During the phase of the exhibition, the touchstone, ruined material, and a piece/object of gold will be placed in the gallery. Visitors are invited to take part to experience the process/technique of rubbing. Through which they can express their own philosophical/psychological/poetic aspect in their own unspoken words as they please.
The touchstone and ruins used by visitors will remain with the artist forever as a memory.
As an ode to his favourite poet Mirza Ghalib, all the titles of the works are taken from his poems / ghazals. QR code/links/medium to listen these poems will be available in the gallery.
Elements e.g., staircase, house, chairs, geometrical/abstract forms, and the jewellery itself in the series also shows the various interest of Yaksh. The ring titled as Vafā is one of the first forms he learned to draw from her teachers Jasmina and Valentina from Le arti orafe (a contemporary jewellery design school in Florence, Italy).
Yaksh Verma, 2023